E nergy drinks have been an exceptionally hot category in Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) stores in recent years. Sales continue to grow in the majority of exchange service stores at a significant rate, and even though their sales growth is not quite in the double-digit (or some-

times triple-digit) territory it was when the category was first introduced into the assortment, it continues to be a vibrant area in the exchange service’s stores.

According to Bridget MacFawn, SD Consumables divisional merchandise manager (DMM) respon-sible for beverages, meaningful year-on-year comparisons of sales figures that include Tactical Field

Exchange (TFE) activity should be weighed carefully against the fact that now there are fewer TFE loca-tions compared to the prior year, due to the drawdown in Iraq significantly impacting the TFE sales.

SALES ACTIVITY“Although the energy drink category is

not having the huge increases that we saw over the past couple of years, it does con-tinue to grow every year,” said AAFES Sales Directorate Senior Buyer Vicki Venables. Overall sales, not including the nearly $27 million gener-ated by TFEs, were $62.96 million, or 8.3-percent better than they were a year earlier. When decreased activity in de-ployed areas is factored in, total sales were actually slightly below what they were during the prior year.

Fiscal 2010 sales through December continue to be sig-nificant, Venables reported. Dollar volume, including di-minished activity at TFEs in Iraq and Afghanistan, totaled $89.61 million, just 0.5-percent below prior year.

When the nearly 11 million TFE sales are excluded from the total, unit sales through December jumped 9.1 percent. Including TFEs in the total meant that unit sales were 35.11 million, a 0.8-percent drop from the prior year.

PRECISION PLANOGRAMSTo keep sales on an uptick, Venables and her buying

group play an important role in creating planograms that reflect the best mix for AAFES stores.

“We use a category advisor to provide industry data, which is compared with exchange sales data, to determine the best mix for our stores,” she reported. “Currently, we are determining the planogram for each specific lo-cation based on their demographic needs. The local distributors are respon-sible for following the store-specific planograms created by the category advisor, Pepsi.”

Proper planograms are even more important when the multitude of new energy drink products are examined through the category review process. “Many of the new entries into the energy category are flavor extensions,” Venables observed. “We have also seen some enhancements to the pack-aging with resealable cans. Some companies are combining hydrating and recovery properties into the formula.”

Venables and her buying group also have a lot of input working with stores on helping them achieve optimal promotions, facings and in-stocks.

“The headquarters buyers work national ads for beverages, to include weekly tabloids, bi-weekly Shoppette specials and sweepstakes,” she noted. “The buyer works with the category advisor to determine the planograms that allocate facings based on store sales.”

Due to the fact that beverages are primarily supported via Direct Store Delivery (DSD), Venables said the local distributors are held responsible for the in-stocks of their products.

E

Pumped UpfOR MAxIMuM PERfORMANCE

AAFES stores offer customers the top energy drink brands available. Through December, total energy drink sales worldwide totaled $89.61 million based on unit sales of 35.11 million. Kaiserslautern

Military Community Center (KMCC), Germany, Shoppette.

Sales of energy drinks through December 2010, excluding downrange sales, are up

more than 8 percent. Fort Lee, Va.

The most sophis-ticated gravity-fed units ensure cool

beverages are always at hand and make rapid replen-ishment simpler for store staff. Kaiser-slautern Military

Community Center (KMCC), Germany,

Shoppette.

AA

FES

Pho

ToS

Venables

—Continued on page 42, AAFES Energy Drinks

EXChANGE and CoMMISSARY NEWS

AAFES Energy Drinks

38 | APRIL 2011

promotional plan for its Good For You/Better For You assortment, and Frost said that DeCA’s “Healthy Eating Promotions Calendar 2011,” provides an out-line for them to follow throughout the year.

The Notice to the Trade (No. 11-20, Dec. 13, 2010), she said, “outlines a program for industry sup-pliers and stores that provide healthier promotional offers focusing on a different patron demographic — active duty, retiree, or children — in a different department during each display period.

“Additionally, industry is being asked to provide customer educational materials containing insights for better-for-you selections that include organic, higher-fiber, lower-fat, lower-sodium, and less-sugar offerings.”

Frost told E and C News that industry suppliers are on board, and work in concert with DeCA’s promotion-al program since all of the promotional activities are coordinated through the agency’s planning calendars.

“Many of our manufacturers have entire lines of brand name healthy products which they present to us for promotions,” Frost said. “In produce, our pro-duce houses have been terrific partners as they have provided demonstrations and fun physical fitness ac-tivities for the children with activities like jump rope and hula hoop.”

HEALTH AND WELLNESS EVENTSThe inaugural commissary/exchange/morale,

welfare and recreation (MWR)-sponsored Family Fun Fitness Festival, which was held in May 2010, highlighted the healthy lifestyle regimen with numer-ous fun activities to get families on the fitness band-wagon. Frost said that the event was a success, and is slated to be held again in May, once again running in conjunction with DeCA’s annual case-lot sale.

“Store directors will be orchestrating the festi-val with local exchange officials and MWR activi-ties with a ‘health and wellness’ theme,” Frost said. “Healthy items and giveaways will be available in the sale, and fun fitness events will be scheduled to get patrons exercising for good health.”

Frost said store directors “have hit it out of the park” as they have organized a number of physical fitness activities that are tied in with commissary sales of Better For You and healthy food offerings.

Commissary patrons have been alerted to savings and healthier offerings by multiple means. The co-operative efforts on base have been numerous. “Ev-erything from command supported physical fitness events at the NB San Diego, Calif., Commissary — which included a stage, professional fitness train-ers and a rock climbing wall — to a “Kids-Get-Fit” program at the MCRD Parris Island, S.C., Commis-sary,” Frost related.

“Moms and Dads can shop the commissary for two hours every Saturday through May while their kids work out with Semper Fit and the Naval hospi-tal,” she continued.

At Nellis AFB, Nev., the installation Health and Wellness Center is holding weekly nutrition tours at the commissary for young airmen and their spouses, Frost said, and the high school culinary arts students recently conducted “healthy cooking for healthy liv-ing” demonstrations for Kadena AB, Japan, commis-sary customers.

“These are just a few examples of efforts oc-curring at commissaries throughout the world on a weekly basis,” she observed.

PATRON ALERTSPatrons are alerted to the presence of many of

these products in their local commissaries in several ways. Frost said that a small channel strip (DeCAP 40-269) is available that can be used to identify all or-ganic products, and the agency is in the process of cre-ating a similar channel strip for gluten-free products.

In addition, Frost said in early March that the agency has mobilized Karen Hawkins, its registered dietitian and Kay Blakley, its home economist, to help raise its customers’ “healthy choice IQ.”

“To this end, our website, www.commissaries.com, has become a first destination for our custom-ers — active duty, retired, and members of the Guard and reserve and their families — to find information about nutritious alternatives within our stock assort-ment, healthy recipes, cooking tips, and general use-ful information for improving their health, wellness, and physical fitness.”

SALES ACTIVITYUp until recently, Good For You/Better For You

foods were not categorized by DeCA, but now, with a category definition, the agency and its data pro-vider, Nielsen, are able to track sales movement of this category.

According to Nielsen data from DeCA, for the 52-week period ending Feb. 19, 2011, with product performance based on UPC sales within the seg-ments, product dollar volume in the commissary’s Good For You category totaled nearly $23.4 million, and activity grew by more than 7 percent.

The top sales-producing subcategory of the 21 subcategories broken out by Nielsen was cereal, with $6.73 million in sales during the reporting pe-riod. Other million-dollar Good For You subcatego-

ries during the 52-week span included canned soup ($5.85 million); salty snacks ($2.42 million); baking aisle items ($1.78 million); boxed prepared dinners ($1.3 million); and vegetables and grains ($1.08 mil-lion).

The cumulative total of these six million dollar-plus subcategories was nearly 82 percent of the total sales for the 52-week period.

The other 18 percent of sales were found in 15 other subcategories, including sauce ($856,108); pea-nut butter and jelly ($654,162); cookies ($583,371); pasta ($477,867); soup ($436,309); juice and drinks ($374,347); bars ($325,719); tea ($251,687); salad dressing ($141,504); dried fruit ($49,522); candy and gum ($45,497); canned fruit ($26,817); and vin-egar and cooking wine ($14,776).

—E and C NEWS

TOP SELLERSAAFES’s worldwide roster of stores and TFEs

in deployed areas carry a large selection of energy drinks to fit just about any performance-related need.

Through December, the Monster brand was AAFES’s top seller in dollar and unit sales includ-ing TFEs, producing $43.49 million in dollar vol-ume based on unit sales of 17.64 million. In sales excluding TFEs, Monster remains the top seller, with $29.09 million based on 11.21 million unit sales.

Red Bull was right behind on the best sellers’ list. In sales including TFEs, the brand produced $29.12 million based on 8.95 million units. Excluding TFEs, Red Bull remained in second place on the AAFES list, with nearly $20 million in volume based on 6.17 million units.

Amp was the third most popular energy drink in the AAFES assortment. During the reporting period, including TFEs, it amassed $4.89 million in sales based on 2.47 million units. Excluding TFEs, Amp registered $3.91 million in activity based on 1.96 million units.

In order, the next six best-selling brands reached their respective placements both with TFE sales in-cluded and excluding these downrange sales.

At No. 4 was Rockstar ($4.59 million, 2.26 mil-lion units with TFEs/$3.57 million, 1.74 million ex-cluding TFEs); and at No. 5 was Full Throttle ($2.18 million, 1.06 million units with TFEs/$1.56 million, 749,231 units excluding TFEs).

Also, in energy drinks, at No. 6 was NOS ($1.54 million, 645,358 units with TFEs/$1.54 million, 644,684 units excluding TFEs; at No. 7 was SoBe ($1.41 million, 727,722 with TFEs/$920,363, 496,757 units excluding TFEs); at No. 8 was Ven-om ($818,529, 387,637 units with TFEs/$811,580, 384,489 units excluding TFEs); and at No. 9 was Xyience ($625,847, 319,479 units including TFEs across the board).

ISOTONICS, ELECTROLYTE BEVERAGESIn addition to energy drinks, Venables is also re-

sponsible for isotonic and electrolyte beverages in the assortment.

“These are an important category for Exchange customers, especially during the summer months,” she noted. “They also play an important role to our military patrons as there is a higher focus on being healthy and fit.”

Spaghetti sauce, as well as pasta, was a strong seller in com-missaries, and both are counted in the

Good For You/Better For You data. Vogel-

weh, Germany.

—Continued from page 38, AAFES Energy Drinks

EXCHANGE and COMMISSARY NEWS42 | APRIL 2011

DeCA Good For You/Better For You